Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to tail-less, fixed wing aircraft having horizontal or vertical take-off and landing capabilities (VTOL).
Description of the Related Art
Aircraft incorporating helicopter-like, rotary lift propellers are known in the art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,776 to Wagner et al. shows a personal aircraft (PAC) capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) comprising a fixed wing and a fuselage with a passenger compartment having a front, a rear and two sides, and a plurality of independently powered thrusters, preferably integrated into the wing, on each side of the fuselage. The thrusters, which are ducted fan units capable of providing a vertically upward force to the aircraft, are provided with such redundancy that the aircraft can hover with at least one thruster inoperative on each side of the fuselage.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,016,226 to Wood teaches a fuselage having laterally extending wing-like structures. The wing-like structures have an aperture. A can is positioned in the aperture. The can has an axle. The axle rotatably couples the can to the aperture. The can has an upper cylindrical section and a lower rectilinear section. A multi-blade rotor is rotatably mounted in the upper section. A battery of airfoils is pivotally mounted in the lower section.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,152,096 to Smith describes an aircraft which may have a fuselage having a longitudinal axis, a left wing extending from the fuselage, a right wing extending from the fuselage, a tail section extending from a rear portion of the fuselage, a first ducted fan rotatably mounted to the left wing, a second ducted fan rotatably mounted to the right wing, and an engine disposed in the fuselage which is connected to the first and second ducted fans.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 8,733,690 to Bevirt et al. shows: an aerial vehicle adapted for vertical takeoff and landing using the same set of engines for takeoff and landing as well as for forward flight; an aerial vehicle which is adapted to takeoff with the wings in a vertical as opposed to horizontal flight attitude which takes off in this vertical attitude and then transitions to a horizontal flight path; and, an aerial vehicle which controls the attitude of the vehicle during takeoff and landing by alternating the thrust of engines, which are separated in at least two dimensions relative to the horizontal during takeoff, and which may also control regular flight in some aspects by the use of differential thrust of the engines.
Typical is that the rotary blades allowing for vertical take-off are typically mounted at least partially external to the wings or body of the aircraft, thus they at least partially extend from the air frame. Such an arrangement contributes to loss of lift. So in an effort to minimize the aerodynamic loss, the numbers of propellors are minimized. As a result, however, there is no motor redundancy, which will lead to the loss of the aircraft should only one motor fail. In addition, typical motor arrangements have not been optimized, resulting in low fuel/energy efficiency.
There is a need then for an aircraft of the VTOL type which has the high fuel/energy efficiency of a fixed wing aircraft design, but also with the mobility of a multirotor or helicopter design.